Nobles are snotty, good-for-nothing parasitesdwarves appointed to office and rule over your fortress. They provide a critical happiness bonus to unhappy and stressed dwarves, who yell at or cry on the nobles. This provides a safety valve for your most stressed dwarves. They also are responsible for interacting with outpost liaisons.

However, some of them can make demands and set mandates which if not met will upset the noble and result in random punishments of your dwarves if the fortress has a sheriff or captain of the guard. They also are aware of their status and do not want a lesser dwarf to have a better room. If the noble is too much of a problem and cannot be fired, it is possible to arrange experience an unfortunate accident.

It is possible for some of your dwarves to hold noble titles over other parts of the kingdom. These dwarves are still capable of issuing mandates in your fort, however, and demand the same sort of privileged treatment as any other noble.

Contents

Below are the room demands made by each Position. For details on Room values see: Room. It also lists the number of chests, cabinets, weapon racks, and armor stands they demand. Finally it shows the max number of demands and mandates they can issue at any given point.

# - lists whether one or more dwarves can have this position. Duke/Count/Baron don't have a number listed, but each fortress can only have one.

Squad - Lists the number and type of dwarf that this position leads

Spouse - Is this noble's spouse also considered a noble? In 0.34.11, the titles of noble consorts are mere courtesy titles. No privileges are attached to them, except of course the fact that they share the rooms with their spouse.

Heir - Is this individual replaced by an heir when they die? Inheritance doesn't take place in fortresses right now. If a landed noble or monarch dies, that position is permanently erased.

Appointed By - Which position appoints this person initially? Note that the player actually controls all appointments via the noble screen; this is, in effect, only which dwarf is necessary before the player can make the appointment. Barons aren't directly appointed but elevated (presumably by the mountainhome) upon recommendation of the player. They cannot be replaced via the 'n'obles screen. Once a baron/countess/duke dies, no new noble can be created, either.

Replaced By - What position replaces this one?

Pop Req - Minimum population required for this position to become available.

Wealth Req - Minimum created & exported wealth (respectively) for this position to become available.

Elected - Is this dwarf elected?

Lazy - If this dwarf is lazy they won't do any regular work aside from pulling levers, deconstructing walls, and some other things. In all 0.34.xx versions, this appears to be broken, i.e. "lazy" nobles can still be assigned to perform any labor. This is still the case for 42.xx versions.

Immunity - Immune dwarves aren't punished for any crimes.

Econ Exempt - These dwarves don't need money to pay for goods or rooms after the Economy arrives. The economy is currently disabled, so this privilege goes unused for now.

Military Screen Only - This position is only listed on the military screen.

Jealous - These dwarves will become upset if their rooms are not better than those of "lesser" dwarves. They don't have to see the rooms to become upset, since they somehow just know such rooms exist.

Appointed nobles are chosen by the player. There are certain social skills that are relevant for each appointed noble's job, and not all dwarves will gain experience in a given skill. In fact, some dwarves will never gain experience in certain skills. This is determined by each dwarf's personal traits, and it is therefore important to select the dwarf with the appropriate set of traits for each position:

Nobles may have impossible demands, like cardinal leather items or metal beds. Bug:944
(Feel free to arrange an unfortunate accident for the idiot in question) While no dwarves will get punished for not producing these items, it may enrage the noble.

Since at least 0.34.01, if your fort is unable to find a replacement for a noble, that noble will never be reappointed. Bug:5299 As of 0.42, mayors and expedition leaders will be reappointed after some time.

Since at least 0.40.09, if your expedition leader is promoted to a monarch, all unfilled positions will disappear from the noble screen. Bug:8129

This article or section has been rated D for Dwarf. It may include witty humour, not-so-witty humour, bad humour, in-jokes, and references to the Bay12 forums. Don't believe everything you read, and if you miss some of the references, don't worry. It was inevitable.

Although many all players often constantly get angry murderously mad at nobles, wiser players simply thank their lucky stars that Armok never created congressdwarves.